Number three’s eyes werepulsing as he stared at me, his fangs lengthened. I remembered what Jayden saidabout my blood being irresistible. I didn’t know what happened when an ash bitanother ash, and I didn’t want to find out.
Falling back on the bestdefense women have had since the dawn of time, I kicked him in the balls, hard,and he let me go briefly. I slid down to the ground, groans escaping as myentire body protested. This was definitely too soon since my fractured skull. Ifought through the pain, knowing I had to get to my feet. This redhead dickwould be coming at me again. And sure enough, his snarling face was lungingtoward me when suddenly his body stopped and like … disappeared.What thehell?My side and head screaming in pain, I dragged myself up and came faceto face with Ryder. Wearing a cold, menacing look, he pointed a sleek black gunat the redhead’s face and pulled the trigger. The snapping of the bullet mademe jerk. Holy shit. Right between the eyes. Ryder had just killed someone likeit was no big deal. I averted my eyes from the body. I knew that red had justtried to kill me, but still, his dead body was not something I wanted to see.
Holstering his gun, Ryderstepped toward me, arms scooping me up to hoist against his body. I struggledagainst him, wanting to walk on my own. I didn’t like to be carried around likea damsel. Plus I would not look any weaker in front of the other ash. Ryderstared down at me for a few extended beats, his breathing deep, eyes fullsilver. Eventually he settled for looping an arm around my waist and letting meuse him as a very muscular crutch. My ribs and head continued to protest as westepped away from the tree. Once I was out in the open, I looked around forJayden. Fear for my friend was pushing down all other emotions.
“He’s fine,” Ryder said,directing my gaze to where Jayden was holding his right arm. Blood seeped outfrom under his fingers and I could see a long, shallow gash in his shoulder.
The pair of black-hairedash were face down on the ground, hands zip-tied behind their backs, two ofRyder’s teammates, dressed in black military fatigues, standing above them, eachresting a boot on their backs. Through Jayden’s constant chatter about thedelicious core group of enforcers, I knew them by sight now.
One was Markus. He wasScottish, with thick red hair which he wore man-bun style, and a beard tomatch. Dude was pretty suave. From the small amounts I’d heard of him, hisaccent was quite delicious. The other was Oliver, who was Latino and hot ashell. He had that dark and mysterious thing down, and I wasn’t surprised to seemy bestie Jayden giving him more than a single glance. The boy might beinjured, but he wasn’t dead. If you included Ryder, we were currentlysurrounded by three members of the “sexy-six” – Jayden’s name for their group.
Ryder drew my attention –not that I was ever not paying attention to him – when he quickly scanned upand down my body. His expression was clinical, like he was looking forinjuries. But his eyes were still all silver.
My cheeks reddened and Ilowered my face a little. Together we crossed to the two ash on the ground,Ryder’s arm and heat plastered firmly to my uninjured side. When we reached thedicks on the ground, the enforcer’s hand tightened and he kept me close as he crouchednear their messed-up faces. Someone had beat on them badly.
His voice was chilling. “Letthis be a message to anyone else who wants to disobey the rules. You save thefighting for the culling. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” the ashground out, barely able to breathe with the other big boys standing on them.
“Okay, boss, what shouldwe do with them?” Markus asked in that rolling brogue. Noticing my stare, hegave me a wink.
Ryder readjusted myposition, taking more of my weight. How had he known I was starting to falteragain?
He threw Markus a slightgrin. “Throw them in the pit for a night. Let’s see how tough they really are.”
Markus and Oliver bothwhistled low, before reaching down to hoist the boys up by the underarms. Ryderturned to face me, his chestnut hair flickering with streaks of gold in thesunlight. Behind him, the now silent and broken douchebuckets were being ledaway to this mysterious “pit.”
Ryder leaned in closer. “Fromnow on, you’re my problem. Get a lot of blood and rest tonight, then tomorrow reportto the training gym first thing in the morning – and also right after lunch, andafter dinner. Understood?”
Problem? I gritted backmy retort. He’d quite possibly just saved my life. “Yes, sir, ash, sir.”
He heaved out a breath,before leaving me in Jayden’s care. “See you in the morning, number forty-six.”
“Leave your torture stickat home,” I reminded him.
I looked up to see Jaydensmiling at me, relieved to see that his wound was pretty much closed up now.“What?”
He shook his head. “Nothing.”And we walked back to the front of the Hive.
That night my dreams were the most vivid Icould remember. Again with the red blood rain, with the constant thirst. Butthere was a new addition: Ryder and Lucas, both half-naked, both trying to teachme to fight. Or teach me something anyways. The half-naked thing was sort ofdistracting, even in a dream. As the dreams faded away, I awoke to see Jayden onhis bed, slowly rotating his shoulder. I sat up and rubbed my eyes a few times,before reaching for my hair-tie and twisting my hair into a top knot.
“How’s your arm?” Icroaked out through my scratchy morning throat.
Jayden flicked me a smallsmile. “I’m almost fully healed. Took a fair amount of blood. His knife slicedthrough something important.”
I winced at the memoryand my hand went instinctively to my head. I could already tell I was a milliontimes healthier today. Which was fantastic. Just in time for someone else tokick the crap out of me.
“Yesterday made shit real,”I said to my roomie, my nerves shaking my voice. “Like, those ash were preparedto off us just like that. And in two weeks you and I are legit going to go on alegal killing spree.”
Jayden gave me a halfsmile. “Yeah, those boys could have stopped the party before it started. ThankGod Ryder showed up.”
Ryder. I had mixedfeelings about that man. On one hand, he was clearly lethal as eff, and hadsaved me more than once in here. On the other hand, he annoyed the heck out ofme with his “number forty-six” dismissiveness. Still … I couldn’t suppress thetingling of anticipation in my stomach. If he wanted to see me three times aday, we were going to be training together a lot over the next two weeks. Whichwas both something I wanted and dreaded.
Truthfully, I wasn’t harboringthe same level of hate toward ash any longer. It’s hard to hate what you are. ButI wasn’t sure I was ready to start crushing on them either. I just couldn’tfigure out why Ryder drew me in so much. It was almost like … I knew him from along time ago, which was crazy talk – I would definitely remember meetingsomeone as hot as Ryder.
I snapped out of my hazeand focused on Jayden.“So, since I nevergot the welcome packet, tell me … what are the best ways to kill an ash?”
Ryder had snapped abullet between red’s eyes and he was gone. So even though we were harder tokill than humans, a bullet definitely worked. Still, I needed to know all theother ways.
